Machine wash cold with like colors

I've got a question for all of you other single dads out there: do you actually pay attention to those instructions when you do the laundry?  Many of the things I'm supposed to wash contain that instruction.  I have a feeling that not everyone takes it very seriously, though.  I think I'd have fifteen loads of laundry if I did that.  I'm a bit puzzled.

Tanner without hair

Let's go back a few weeks to when Tanner had no hair.  I wasn't blogging then, so you never got to see a picture.  Here he is.  He shaved just before his final swim meet of the year.  You can also see how fat he's gotten since we returned to Minnesota.

I get it right once in a while

Our MWF morning routine is starting to come together now.  I get up at 5:30 to get myself ready, then I help Tanner to get moving at 6:10, then I get Lindsey up at 6:40.  Tanner leaves the house for the bus at 6:55, and Lindsey and I leave right after that.  She loves her morning child care, so it's easy to get her up early.

Until a few weeks ago, Stace and I were having a real problem with Tanner moving fast enough, getting out of the shower soon enough, and making it to to the bus.  The process had degenerated into us doing a lot of harassing every few minutes to make sure Tanner got out the door.  Tanner resented it, and our mornings weren't pleasant.  In that process, he'd leave the bathroom a mess without hanging up his towel or putting away his clothes.

I came up with a new approach a few weeks ago to put the responsibility on him.  I now charge him a $15 transportation fee if he misses the bus and I have to take him to school, and I charge him a $5 bathroom cleaning fee if he doesn't straighten up the bathroom.  There's no threatening or harassing.  It's up to him to get it right or face the consequences.

Much to my surprise, it's worked brilliantly.  I don't ever bother him, tell him how much time he has left, or tell him to hurry.  Mornings are much more calm and pleasant.  He knows it's up to him to get it right.  In the ten weeks or so that the system has been in place, I've never had to charge him the transportation fee, and I've only had to charge him the bathroom cleaning fee twice.  And I'll gladly take $5 to hang up a towel and put some underwear in the laundry.  That's a bargain!

Well, this is weird

I suddenly find myself with 65 minutes alone at home.  Tanner is at swimming practice and Lindsey is at Girl Scouts.  I can't remember the last time that happened.  What should I do?  I'm at a bit of a loss.

I guess I'll default to making an inane blog entry and then reading the newspaper.

Today's single-parent missteps

1.  When we got to church, I realized with horror that I had forgotten to tell Lindsey to brush her hair.  It looked awful.  I told her to head to the restroom to do the best she could with her fingers.  In the end, it wasn't too terrible.

2.  Lindsey complained this afternoon that she had ripped a nail.  I started looking at her nails and realized that I should probably have clipped them a couple of weeks ago.  They were out of control.  It's hard to keep track of all this stuff!

3.  I have several dishes sitting on the counter because I have no idea where to put them in the kitchen.  Maybe I'll just start storing the dishes in my three-car garage since I seem to have plenty of space out there.

Tomorrow's itinerary:  get Tanner on the bus, take Lindsey to morning child care, go to work, get home from work, feed kids dinner, help Lindsey with homework, take Lindsey to Girl Scouts at 6:30, take Tanner to swim practice at 7:00, pick Lindsey up from Girl Scouts at 8:00, pick Tanner up from swimming practice at 8:30, get kids to bed right away.  Collapse into bed at some point thereafter.  Whew!

Another absurdity

I mentioned the fact that I have two sinks as one of the absurd aspects of my new existence.  Here's another:  my Hyundai Elantra is the sole occupant of my three-car garage.

 

Looks sort of sad and lonely, doesn't it?

Sometimes, God mocks Minnesotans

My morning went like this:  shovel snow, get one kid off to school, shovel more snow, get the other kid off to school, shovel more snow, go to work.  It's April 11, and we had several inches of snow.

To add insult to injury, while I was out shoveling this morning, there were cracks of thunder.  That's an odd phenomenon that I don't remember from Utah, but it happens sometimes in Minnesota.  You can get thunder during a snowstorm.  Is that even fair?